


I'll play you someting

by FanFicReader01



Series: The Library Chronicles [14]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, Bromance, Developing Relationship, F/M, Ficlet, Fluff, Foolery, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Guitar, Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, Music, Oneshot, Open Relationships, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Apocalypse, Romance, Slice of Life, tiia makes a brief cameo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27192500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFicReader01/pseuds/FanFicReader01
Summary: “What are you up to, man?” Tyrell curiously asks without hiding his utter mirth and laughter as his fellow merc has been reading into some booklet about guitars ever since they crashed at some quiet, old building to rest.orCarlos is ready to develop his relationship with Jill and tries to impress her.
Relationships: Carlos Oliveira/Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveira/Tyrell Patrick
Series: The Library Chronicles [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885000
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	I'll play you someting

“What are you up to, man?” Tyrell curiously asks without hiding his utter mirth and laughter as his fellow merc has been reading into some booklet about guitars ever since they crashed at some quiet, old building to rest.

“Shh… I’m focusing,” Carlos hisses and waves the older man away.

Tyrell rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. He leans against the broken wall behind him and slowly thuds down as well. “It’d be easier to learn if you actually got a guitar too.”

“I know, I know…,” the young merc lets out a frustrated sigh, closes the book and looks his friend in the eyes. “You know where I could get one?”

“Nope, not really-, _wait_ , yes I do! Actually I came across a travelling merchant. I think she had some stringed instrument with her!”

“When did you see her for the last time?”

“Not so long ago. I think two days ago? If you’re lucky, we can get back to that spot. She said she’d be staying there for a week or something,” Tyrell recalls.

“You’re willing to go with me?”

“Yeah, man. I don’t have a tight schedule or strict plans for the time being. So I might as well follow you around. How long has it been since we last met?”

“Maybe three months or something,” Carlos counts on his fingers with a frown. “Thanks, your help is appreciated!”

The mercenaries make a camp for the night and assure the spot is safe enough. Still, they’ll take shifts before continuing their journey the next morning.

“Are you finally going to tell me what’s up with that smile of yours and the guitar thing?” Tyrell shifts to third gear as they accelerate.

“You remember the Library of the West?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“You remember Jill? The cute Librarian?”

Tyrell cracks a smug grin. “ _Oh_ , so that’s where this is going!” Carlos lets out a nervous laugh but nods.

“I’ve been delivering more books to her lately. Running errands for her as well, together with a new dude named Murphy. He’s been great company too.”

“Neat. So what about that chick? You two getting close or what?”

“I think so. We’ve had some talks. Casual, but also some deeper conversations.”

“About our insignificance in this cold, cruel world?” Tyrell laughs.

“Well, that and feelings… and stuff,” Carlos adds with a severe blush. Then he looks at Tyrell, despite the other man having to focus on the road. “I think she and I could become a real thing. But I wasn’t sure if I could commit.”

“Why not? Because of all the travelling you do? The distance?”

“Nah, bro. Because of us,” Carlos clears his throat and quickly looks away when Tyrell throws him a side glance. Then it gets quiet between the two guys, except for the radio playing some tunes.

“I mean…. What-”

“I’m fine with it,” Tyrell cuts the younger man off. “You deserve to be happy with someone else.”

“I’m not saying you’re not good enough for me, T! I just-, I thought since we got some sort of thing going, I wanted you to know. Else I feel like a bad friend… and partner.”

“As I said, I’m fine with it. But you want to continue _this_? Or whatever we have?”

Carlos stares out of the window, his fingers tapping on the dashboard. “Kind of? Like I don’t know how that actually works: having two relationships at the same time but it must me possible, right?”

“Is Jill fine with that? Does she know?”

“I want to tell her. And from there, we’ll see.”

“Good, do that first then. Hope she don’t break your heart, man. Because I love the glow you’re having now!”

“Is it _that_ obvious?” Carlos exclaims and Tyrell only laughs in response.

The duo arrives in a small town where they park the truck just outside the barricades. After a quick and easy check up, they’re let inside. One of the gate overseers still recognises Tyrell and waves at him. Inside the town, it’s vivid. There are kids playing around on the streets and apparently there’s a market in booming business. They wade through the people and find the merchant at her own stand. She’s selling books and art pieces and the guitar.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. If there’s anything you’re looking for, feel free to ask or else just have a look at the wares,” the woman smiles.

Tyrell nods and nudges Carlos forward. “Ehm… How much for that guitar?”

“It’s a bit pricey as it’s quite old. But it functions perfectly. Here, you can give it a try,” the saleswoman smiles as she offers the piece to the young merc who begins to smile nervously.

“Ah, sure… Thanks,” Carlos takes over the guitar and lets himself get used to the special weight. His thumb runs over some of the strings before he plucks at it a bit. Both Tyrell and the woman realise that Carlos has clearly never used this instrument before. The older merc grins and chuckles: “Looks like you’re going to have to practice a lot before we get back to the Library!”

“Shut it! I-, I’ll find a way to make this work!” Carlos snorts. He carefully puts the guitar down and fishes into his backpack for coins and other valuable items to pay the woman.

“Here, Jill wanted me to give this unique copy a new, proper home and I think you’re the perfect new owner for that.”

“Oh my, thank you! You know, I’m actually a good friend of the Northern Librarian. I’m sure he’ll love this one in his collection!”

“That’s a good deal, I’d say,” Carlos grins.

They say their goodbye and get back to the front gates. Tyrell gets behind the wheel once more and Carlos cradles his new purchase in the passenger’s seat.

“I-, I told Jill I could play guitar and that I was composing something for her,” Carlos sighs.

Tyrell starts the engine and shakes his head. “You crazy son of a bitch. You better perfect your playing skills by the time we arrive at the West!”

“How long would it take do you think?”

“Hmm.. Maybe three weeks if we’re lucky? I’m afraid my truck needs some fixes though or she won’t make it before winter.”

\--

The next days Carlos tries to practice as much as he can. When he’s not trading or collecting new books for Jill’s Library or eating and sleeping, he is practicing with the guides he’d found along the way. Both to Tyrell’s amusement and irritation. The first week was clearly not a feast to the older merc’s ears and at one point Tyrell was even considering throwing Carlos out of the car and picking him back up when he got better.

“You’re becoming decent. Not good, but my ears no longer bleed,” Tyrell jokes as they sit at the makeshift campfire.

“I’ll probably mess up in front of her anyway,” Carlos snorts, more gloomy than expected.

“Next time, impress her with something you’re already familiar with,” Tyrell comments.

The younger merc shrugs his shoulders but agrees in silence. It was actually a dumb move to lie about his guitar playing skills. But in the heat of the moment, he had just blurted out he knew how to play a song of two and Jill had been so intrigued, he didn’t want to ruin that moment. Suddenly fear of rejection and disappointment struck the young man, only for it to be driven away for a brief moment by Tyrell’s comforting and reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“You’ll get this. Jut be honest. Worst case, she might drop you. Best case, you two’ll laugh it off.”

\--

“You got this!” Tyrell nudges his friend into the Library while he’ll just wait outside or go into the adjacent town. Carlos is more nervous than ever. When he walks up to the counter, Jill isn’t there but he gets greeted by another familiar face.

“Hey, Chris!”

“Carlos, good to see you again! You’re here to deliver some books or?”

“Yeah, that too… And eh-,” before he can finish his sentence, Jill appears with a box in her hands. She struts over to the reception and puts the box down before greeting Carlos with a surprised look.

“I see you got your guitar with you,” she immediately gets to the point and the man awkwardly smiles.

“Yes. I-, eh, I wanted to show you.”

“Great! Tomorrow I’m going to have a picnic with some close friends. Murphy will be there too. you should join and show off those skills,” Jill smirks and even winks at him.

“Yeah… About that, I’m not sure yet.”

“Don’t be shy, Carlos. Jill told me about it! I’m sure we could use some great live music!” Chris jumps in.

Then Jill adds with a meaningful look: “But if you want to give a more private performance, I’m free tonight. Murphy will take my part then.”

“I’d love to,” Carlos sighs, clearly love smitten despite his previous nervousness.

The remaining hours, he and Jill spend the time together. He helps her around in the Library and they talk. When the Librarian brings up Tyrell, Carlos decides to tell her about their casual relationship.

“Say, I wanted to get this out of the way before we….before we continue whatever we have now.”

“Sure,” Jill says as she reorganises some books on the shelf. “What is it?”

“I wouldn’t say T and I are a thing but… well, we do have some casual contact from time to time. But we’re not lovers, you see? It’s-, it’s a bit complicated. Like we’re friends… but not only friends,” Carlos stumbles himself through explaining whatever he and Tyrell have.

“Oookay,” Jill hesitatingly mutters, slowing down her pace of rearranging.

“So-, would you be okay with that? If we were to enter some relationship, that I still see Tyrell too?” His heart is beating loudly, almost deafening. Impatiently he awaits the young woman’s answer.

“I-, I never thought about it before. To be honest, I’m not sure. But I’d like to give it a try, knowing that I really like you. And I see that you and Tyrell are really close friends… even a bit more, as you just said. So I wouldn’t want to come in-between that.”

“You absolutely don’t! A-and Tyrell said he’d be fine with it, if you and I got together.”

Jill brushes some hair out of her face and eyes the taller guy, smiling. “Then I’d like to give this a try too.”

\--

After Carlos and Tyrell had dinner together downtown, Carlos readies himself for the biggest let down so far. Stupid him and his own lies. But there’s no escaping it now. Tyrell wishes him luck for the final time before Carlos goes knocking on Jill’s door. The corridor is eerily quiet at this hour of the day. Most people either sleep in another section of the Library or they’ve simply gone home to their own houses.

A few seconds later, Jill opens the door and appears in that sweet strawberry dress of hers. Bright smile, even in the darkness.

“Please, come on in!” She goes in first and Carlos slowly follows her. They end up in the cosiest corner of her room.

They plop down on the bean bags. The woman had turned on a rosy lamp and even poured them some glasses of wine.

“Show me what you got,” she grins, expectantly.

“Yeah… right, lemme just tune this first.” Carlos is muttering, more to himself than to her. He tunes the instrument and gets out a small piece of wrinkled paper with all the chords.

“Just to remember,” he chuckles. The nervousness is killing him but Jill doesn’t seem to mind as she patiently waits with her glass of wine in hand.

He hits it off pretty okay but he dies inside every time he hears he’s way out of tune and when some of the chords are literally off-key. When he quickly glances over at his partner, Jill is trying to hide her laugh behind her glass.

“I’m not really good at this am I,” he huffs as he puts the guitar down and sighs in defeat.

“It’s okay… You haven’t played it for a long time it seems,” Jill tries to brush it off but Carlos doesn’t let her.

“No, I’ve got a confession to make. It’s not that I’m getting rusty, or didn’t practice enough. In fact, I practiced hard but I can only do so much as a very beginner. I’m sorry, I lied about being a great musician. I’m clearly not.” He lets his head hang low, ready for scolding or Jill kicking him out.

The woman puts down her wine, takes a deep breath before laughing. It’s almost hysterical and it’s so contagious, Carlos laughs along with her. It does ease some tension but once they’re done laughing, he holds his breath.

“It’s okay. I could tell from the start but I wanted to see you try anyway,” the Librarian admits.

“You did?”

“Yes. But why did you lie about that? You could’ve just said you were just learning to play the guitar.”

“I guess I wanted to impress you with something else. I felt I was too boring elsewise,” he confesses.

Jill wipes away a tear and sighs: “You’re never too boring for me. And to be honest, this was pretty amusing. You’ve made me laugh good time. But I’ll spare you the humiliation tomorrow at the picnic. You won’t have to play. But I’ll have to let Chris know.”

“Of course,” Carlos chuffs. It will probably earn him another laugh, but he deserved that. “I promise, though, I won’t lie about my skills ever again!”

“I’m sure you will,” Jill raises a playful eyebrow.

“Are you being sarcastic?”

“Maybe,” she mysteriously replies and sips her wine. “But you weren’t that bad for a beginner. I think there’s some potential to grow, though. Just don’t give up now.”

“Someday, I’ll compose a propre song for you, I swear! That’s a promise.”

“Pinkie promise?” the woman grins as she holds out her hand.

“Promise,” Carlos smiles and hooks his pinkie onto hers. He takes his own glass and raises it. “So… ehm, to us then?”

“To the start of something new. And to us!” Jill smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed this one!
> 
> Also, I really am trying to write another oneshot for the RE3 characters in this universe, mainly focusing on Nikolai and eh... some cult but it's difficult to write xD So who knows when that story will be released, if it will be released at all (or in the shape i'm currently writing it in :P)


End file.
